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But it emerged that, despite security services being fully aware of his previous detention, al-Harith, who worked as a web designer for a time, was able to escape the UK in 2014 to fight with ISIS in Syria, leading to his eventual death.

Al-Harith’s brother Leon Jameson told the Times: 'I’m not ashamed of him, I never will be. But it’s his own decision. I can only just give him advice if he needs any.

'All I know is one day he brought a Quran home,' he added. 'We were supportive of it, yeah,we didn’t see anything wrong with it at the time and the trouble only started later, seems like he’s been dragged into it.'

His journey was revealed following an escape from ISIS-controlled Syria in 2015 by British mother Shukee Begum and her five children.

Miss Begum was married to al-Harith before he left the family home in Birmingham to fight in Syria, and had flown to the war-torn country to try to persuade the fanatic to return to the UK.

The Muslim convert changed his name from Ronald Fiddler to Jamal Udeen al-Harith in 1994, before fighting for ISIS under the new name Abu Zakariya al-Britani

Al-Harith gives testimony before a Council of Europe panel in 2004 (shown right), as part of an inquiry into human rights abuses at Gauntanamo Bay

However, her attempts failed, and she endured a ten-month ordeal being passed between hostages and rebel groups as she tried to escape.

In 2015, she told Channel 4: 'I’d love to go back to the UK. The UK is my home. I grew up there. My friends are there. My family are there. That’s where I consider to be home.

'But I’m just not sure at the moment, with the track record of the current government, if the UK is somewhere I can achieve justice. I hope I’m wrong.'

At the time, she said she was biding her time before returning to Britain because she fears she could face terrorism charges.

Ms Begum, a law graduate from Greater Manchester, insists she did not support the extremists, and says she wanted to persuade al-Harith to return to the family home.

She told Channel 4 News: 'I was thinking about the children's futures. Was he part of it? Will he come back? All these things go through your mind.'

Footage said to have been captured yesterday morning shows Abu Zakariya's reinforced vehicle setting off along a dusty road

The video then cuts to a plume of smoke in the distance after the car bomb is detonated

She added: 'I was seeing on the news at this point that Isis was going from bad to worse… So I decided that I was going to try and speak some sense into him.

'At the same time I wanted to see him. I wanted the children to see their father. I wanted the baby to meet his father as well.'

After arriving in Syria, Ms Begum ended up living in a crowded safe-house in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, along with dozens of other foreign women looking for their husbands.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

1966: Ronald Fiddler is born in Manchester to devout Christian parents originating from Jamaica

1994: He converts to Islam, changing his name to Jamal Udeen al-Harith

October 2001: Al-Harith travels to Quetta in Pakistan, on a 'religious holiday'. A few day later the US invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan began

Early 2002: He is arrested by American forces in Afghanistan after they discover him in a Taliban jail and later transferred to Guantanamo Bay prison

2004: After lobbying from Tony Blair's Labour government, al-Harith is released along with five others. He returns to the UK where he is released without charge, and joins three other prisoners in suing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

2009: His case against Rumsfield and the US government is finally dismissed on the grounds of 'limited immunity' for government officials

2014: Despite security services being fully aware of his previous detention, he is able to escape the UK to fight with ISIS in Syria

2015: His British wife Shukee Begum, along with their five children, join him in Syria before fleeing from the Isis-controlled territory

February 2017: Al-Harith is killed in a suicide attack near Mosul, Iraq

Eventually, Ms Begum and her children were reunited with al-Harith, and the family moved to a house near al-Bab in northern Syria.

But her planned to bring him home failed as she could not convince him to leave.

Ms Begum said she only planned to keep the children in Syria for a month, but after a bag containing her phones, travel money and passports was stolen, she found herself trapped.

She asked her husband to help her get out, to no avail. And she appealed to an Islamic court to give her permission to leave, but was told: 'Women and children belong in ISIS territory.'

She reached safety when she was rescued by Al Qaeda-linked group Al Nusra. Her last known location was in Syria, on the Turkish border.

Al-Harith's back story has resurfaced after pictures online shows him grinning next to what appears to be wires connected to a red-buttoned detonator.

ISIS claim his attack, during a raging battle for control of the city, caused multiple casualties but this has not been confirmed. They gave his name as Abu Zakariya al-Britani.

After his release from Guantanamo, al-Harith spoke of the treatment he received at the hands of the guards.

Speaking in 2004, he told the Mirror: 'The whole point... was to get to you psychologically.

'The beatings were not nearly as bad as the psychological torture - bruises heal after a week but the other stuff stays with you.

He said said he was interviewed upwards of 40 times by American officials - sometimes to 12 hours at a time - and nine times by British agents.

He was finally released with five others and alongside the three men known as the Tipton Three – Rhuhel Ahmed, Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul.

Muslim convert al-Harith (left) was sent to Guantanamo Bay in 2002. He has been pictured in the past with fellow Guantanamo prisoner Moazzam Begg (right)

Born Ronald Fiddler, he turned to Islam in the 1990s and changed his name to Jamal Udeen al-Harith.

He travelled to Pakistan during the 90s and settled in North London for a short while with his first wife Debbie Odoffin in 1997.

He later visited Australia for several months in 2000 after striking up a relationship online with Samantha Cook, the daughter of senator Peter Cook.

He stayed with Samantha in Perth up until mid-2000, before returning to Manchester.

In October 2001, he travelled to Quetta in Pakistan, on what he claimed was a religious holiday. A few days later the US invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan began.

He claimed the Taliban locked him up and accused him of being a British spy. A few months later he was found in a Taliban jail by US special forces and transferred to Guantanamo Bay.

Maxine Fiddler, Jamal's father and Maxine Fiddler, Jamal's sister, pictured during his detention at Guantanamo

US authorities considered that he was ‘probably involved in a former terrorist attack against the US’.

He was assessed as being an Al Qaeda fighter and considered a ‘high threat to the US’.

When al-Harith was released in 2004, he was repatriated to England and released without charge.

‘This is a scandalous situation,’ said Tory MP Tim Loughton. ‘So much for Tony Blair’s assurances that this extremist did not pose a security threat.

‘He clearly was a risk to Britain and our security all along. It adds insult to injury that he was given £1million in compensation because of Blair’s flawed judgement that he was an innocent.’

Liberal Democrat MP John Pugh said: ‘This raises serious questions about the reassurances Labour gave us that this man posed no danger.

CAGE WEBSITE'S GLOWING AL-HARITH REFERENCE

The website, originally formed to raise awareness of the plight of prisoners of Guantanamo, still has a profile for al-Harith on its website, from when he was released.

It reads: 'Al-Harith converted to Islam in his 20s after reading Malcom X's biography. He has two sisters, Maxine and Sharon.

'His family say he is a gentle, quiet man who rarely spoke of his faith unless asked, and after four years learning Arabic and teaching English at Khartoum University in Sudan, he seemed happy enough to return home where he started to study nursing. At this time, he also established a computer business. He later moved back to Manchester, where he worked as an administrator in a Muslim school.

'He travelled from the UK to Pakistan at the end of September 2001, retracing a journey he had made to Iran in 1993. He paid a lorry driver to take him from northern Pakistan to Iran as part of a backpacking trip, but they were stopped near the Afghan border by Taliban soldiers who saw his British passport and jailed him, in October, fearing he was a spy. He had been away from home only three weeks when he was captured.

'As the operation to mop up al Qaida forces went on into the spring of 2001, he was captured by US forces while being held in Kandahar Jail. He was interrogated by the CIA in Afghanistan before being taken to Guantanamo.

'He was released from Guantanamo and returned to the UK on 9th March 2004. After a few hours of questioning he was released without charge and reunited with his family. Jamal was the first of the British detainees to speak publicly about his ordeal. He married in late 2004 and has three children (aged 3,5, and 8) from a previous marriage.'

Source: old.cageprisoners.com

Al-Harith (left) is pictured in his early years in Manchester, England, before his detention at Gauntanamo in 2002. His wife Shukee Begum is shown right

‘It is a kick in the teeth that he was given a fortune in taxpayers’ money after claiming he was innocent only to flee to Islamic State and pose a risk to the UK.

‘The Home Office needs to explain how he was able to leave the country so easily despite his background mixing with those at the very top of Islamic terrorism.’

ISIS said al-Harith as one of two militants involved in the attack on a Shiite army outpost.

The attack came as Iraqi forces advanced on ISIS positions in the west of the city.

Footage said to have been captured on Monday shows a reinforced vehicle setting off along a dusty road. The video then cuts to a plume of smoke in the distance.

A statement released by the terror group today said: 'The martyrdom-seeking brother Abu Zakariya al-Britani - may Allah accept him - detonated his explosives-laden vehicle on a headquarters of the Rafidhi army and its militias in Tal Kisum village, southwest of Mosul.'

The attack came as Iraqi forces advanced on ISIS positions in the west of the city

Kyle Orton, a specialist in Islamist groups at the Henry Jackson Society security think-tank, said: ‘Fiddler is part of a considerable cadre of people released from Guantanamo Bay who have returned straight to the ranks. This keeps happening so the drive to shut the camp has always been a very, very serious threat.

‘Allowing people to be put back in the field is a concrete security threat. The drive to release has been disastrous in terms of the consequences for Western security.’

Afzal Ashraf, a former counter-terrorism adviser to the United States in Iraq, told the BBC that the incident showed ‘some of the people in Guantanamo Bay were up to no good’.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'The UK has advised for some time against all travel to Syria, and against all travel to large parts of Iraq.

'As all UK consular services are suspended in Syria and greatly limited in Iraq, it is extremely difficult to confirm the whereabouts and status of British nationals in these areas.'

Terror suspects we gave £1million each to keep them quiet

By Ian Drury, Home Affairs Editor

As many as 16 British citizens and residents received millions of pounds in compensation after being held in Guantanamo Bay.

A deal believed to be worth almost £20million was agreed by the Government after the terror suspects threatened legal action.

The detainees, many of whom claimed they were victims of kidnap and torture, warned they would sue Britain for its involvement in their abuse. Many alleged that UK spies were complicit in barbaric mistreatment at the US military base in Cuba following 9/11.

Ministers settled the case on the grounds that they could not defend themselves against the damaging allegations without harming British security by revealing sensitive intelligence information.

Then Justice Secretary Ken Clarke, who revealed details of the settlement in the Commons in November 2010, said the deal was confidential but necessary.

A legal battle would have laid bare the depth to which Tony Blair’s Labour Government was complicit in rendition and torture – but the Tory-led coalition made clear that it wanted to avoid a court case which would have cost up to £50million.

The payouts sparked anger among MPs, who called them money for old rope and said the settlements would give comfort to our enemies.

Up to £1million was handed to each of the former Guantanamo Bay captives, including Binyam Mohamed, who alleged that British agents fed questions to his interrogators.

Mohamed was arrested in Afghanistan in 2002 and sent to a CIA prison in Kabul, then transferred to Morocco, where he claimed he was cut and repeatedly beaten. In 2004 he was sent to Guantanamo, where he was held until his return to the UK in 2009.

Another terror suspect to receive compensation was Martin Mubenga, a joint citizen of both the United Kingdom and Zambia. He was held in Africa, and claimed to have been interrogated by a British man who said he was an MI6 official. They allegedly told him that his UK passport, which he had reported stolen, was found in an Al Qaeda cave in Afghanistan. He was sent to Guantanamo Bay and held for 33 months.

Another recipient was Moazzam Begg, who ran a Muslim bookshop in Birmingham before moving to Afghanistan.

He was captured in Pakistan in 2002 by the CIA, who said he was an Al Qaeda recruiter.

He is now a leading member of the discredited Cage human rights group, described knife-wielding executioner Mohammed Emwazi – dubbed ‘Jihadi John’ – as a ‘beautiful young man’ after he was killed in an airstrike. Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantanamo, also received £1million. The father of four was freed in October 2015, but his release was delayed for at least eight years amid claims the US was concerned about Britain’s ability to monitor terror suspects.

Mr Aamer, who was held without trial or charge for almost 14 years, was seized in Afghanistan in 2001. He denied accusations that he was a key aide of Osama Bin Laden.

He was released after a campaign by the Mail, which argued that although he had questions to answer about his presence in Afghanistan, it was an affront to justice to detain him without charge or trial.

In 2010, then Prime Minister David Cameron ordered Sir Peter Gibson to head the Detainee Inquiry to look into the claims that our intelligence services were complicit in torture. However, it was suspended after two years while police investigated claims that MI6 was involved in the extraordinary rendition of two Libyan dissidents, Abdul Hakim Belhaj and Sami al-Saadi. In 2013 Sir Peter’s inquiry closed its investigation on the basis that it could not continue while Scotland Yard pursued its own inquiries. The probe was scrapped after prosecutors controversially ruled that no one would stand trial over claims that spies helped to put Mr Belhaj and Mr al-Saadi in the clutches of Colonel Gaddafi in 2004.

However, an interim report by Sir Peter, a High Court judge, found that MI6 agents had not properly raised concerns about sleep deprivation and waterboarding for fear of offending US allies.

Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee was handed the case as part of its wider inquiry into rendition.

For the first time, it was officially confirmed that politicians knew the UK was involved in the CIA’s unlawful programme of torture flights. Mr Cameron was accused of a whitewash after rejecting calls to re-open the Detainee Inquiry.

He re-iterated that the work would be done by Parliament’s secretive ISC – even though it is subject to a Government veto on the evidence it sees and what it can publish.

In 2010, Mr Cameron had told Parliament an ISC inquiry could not command ‘public confidence’. But last June he maintained that giving it the brief was the ‘right approach.’

THE BRITISH MEN WHO HAVE BEEN KILLED FIGHTING FOR ISIS

Jihadi John brandishes a knife in an ISIS video from 2014

Mohammed Emwazi (Jihadi John)

Emwazi had been reported killed in a November 2015 air strike, with US forces saying they were 'reasonably certain' he was dead.

IS later released what appeared to be an obituary to the fighter, who it called Abu Muharib al-Muhajir.

It featured a smiling picture of the militant, who appeared unmasked looking towards the ground.

Emwazi shocked the world when he appeared in a video in August 2014 in which he condemned the West and appeared to behead US journalist James Foley.

He emerged again in a number of other videos released by IS, including those in which American reporter Steven Sotloff and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning were murdered.

Kuwait-born Emwazi attended Quintin Kynaston Community Academy in north London and was described by his former head teacher as a 'hard-working aspirational young man'.

He went on to gain a degree in information systems with business management from the University of Westminster.

Reyaad Khan, from Cardiff, is thought to have travelled to fight in Syria late in 2013

Reyaad Khan

Khan was 20 when he appeared in an Isis propaganda video titled, There Is No Life Without Jihad, in June last year together with two other Britons urging Westerners to join the war.

The youngster, from Cardiff, is thought to have travelled to fight in Syria late in 2013.

His Facebook page revealed that he was a Chelsea FC fan who enjoyed playing computer games FIFA 12 and Call Of Duty.

After appearing in the video with a Kalashnikov assault rifle against his shoulder his mother said she believed he had been 'brainwashed' into joining IS.

In a direct appeal to her son, the woman, who asked to remain unnamed, sobbed as she said: 'Reyaad, please come back home. I'm dying for you. You're my only son.'

Before leaving for Syria, Khan attended Cardiff's Al-Manar Centre (ACT) together with Nasser Muthana, who was also filmed for the IS recruitment video.

The mosque denied the pair had been taught extremist views there and blamed the internet as an 'alarming source for radicalisation'.

Mr Cameron said Khan had been killed on August 21 2015 when he was targeted by an RAF remotely piloted aircraft while travelling in a vehicle in Raqqah, Syria.

Rahul Amin was born in Bangladesh and grew up in Aberdeen before reportedly moving with his family to Leicester

Ruhul Amin

Amin, 26, featured alongside Khan and Muthana in the 13-minute IS recruitment video under the name Brother Abu Bara al Hindi.

Wearing sunglasses and a white headscarf, he could be heard saying: 'Are you willing to sacrifice the fat job you've got, the big car, the family you have?

'Are you willing to sacrifice this, for the sake of Allah? If you do Allah will give you back 700 times more.'

Also known as Abdul Raqib Amin, he was born in Bangladesh and grew up in Aberdeen before reportedly moving with his family to Leicester.

In July 2014 he boasted on ITV's Good Morning Britain that he had been 'involved in a few combats' in Syria.

Explaining the moment he left Britain, he said: 'I left the house with the intention of not to go back. I'm going to stay and fight until the (caliphate) is established, or I die.'

A leading member of Aberdeen's Muslim community, who did not want to be identified, said he was not someone who 'stood out in any particular way'.

He was killed in the same airstrike as Khan.

Hacker Junaid Hussain was described as a key ISIS operative before he was killed by a US drone strike on August 24

Junaid Hussain

Computer hacker Hussain was described as a key ISIS operative before he was killed by a US drone strike on August 24.

The 21-year-old, from Birmingham, was said to have been number three on the Pentagon's 'kill list' of IS targets.

It is believed that he fled Britain to travel to Syria in 2013, and in June last year he was linked to a plot to attack an Armed Forces Day parade in south London.

The plan to explode a pressure cooker bomb - killing soldiers and bystanders on the route - was reportedly foiled after Hussain unwittingly recruited an undercover investigator from The Sun to carry it out.

In June 2012, aged 18, Hussain was jailed for six months after he admitted making prank calls to a counter-terror hotline and publishing former prime minister Tony Blair's address book.

He was a member of TeaMpOisoN (TeamPoison), a group which claimed responsibility for more than 1,400 offences where personal and private information has been illegally extracted from victims in the UK and around the world.

Hussain was reportedly married to a Muslim convert named as Sally Jones, a mother of two from Kent who once was a member of an all-girl punk rock group.